Celebrating B Movies, Cult Films, and Indie Classics.

When it comes to watching movies growing up, I most definitely had two modes of movies that I watched…

When I was with my Dad, I watched mostly Horror and Science Fiction movies. Which I think is great and has helped develop in me my love of both the horror genre, both in books and movies and the same can also be said for the Science Fiction genre for both books and movies.

With that said though, when I watched movies with my Mom, I watched a lot of Comedies and some Fantasy movies…

With that said, I have grown to be a huge fan of the Fantasy film genre for a couple of reasons:

1. Swords and Sorcery is always cool.

2. Call me a hopeless romantic if you want, but it always brings a smile to my face when the hero rescues the damsel in distress.

3. And lastly, it seems like Fantasy movies always end up leaving one with a good feeling…

Labyrinth tells the story of Sarah (Connelly). Sarah is very unhappy with her current living situation. It is not explicitly said, but it is implied that Sarah's mother probably had died, and that her father (Played by: Christopher Malcom) had remarried a new woman (Played by: Shelley Thompson) and that her father and step mother had a child by the name of Toby (Froud)…

One of the things that Sarah actually does tend to enjoy doing is immersing herself in to classic Fantasy stories (The Wizard Of Oz, and other such stories, with her favorite seemingly to be 'The Labyrinth')

With that said, one day Sarah has dressed herself so that she looks like a fair maiden and is in the park playing acting as if she were the girl in 'The Labyrinth' story, when she suddenly notices the time… So she and her dog Merlin run home in the rain.

Sarah (Conolly) as she realizes she is going to be late getting home.

When she gets there she is greeted by her stepmother who makes the Dog go to the garage, while after a brief fight between the two of them, Sarah ends up charging up the stairs preparing for another night of Babysitting her brother, while her father and her stepmother head out for the evening (Sarah hates both her stepmother and her half brother at this point.)

Anyway after the fight, Sarah's stepmother and her father are talking and her father decides to try and talk with Sarah about the fight, but when he gets up to Sarah's room, he makes a half assed attempt to console Sarah (he doesn't even make it in to her room.) Sarah's father ultimately leaves, which angers Sarah even more.

Later on when Baby Tobey, who had been sleeping in his crib, wakes up and starts crying! Well this annoys Sarah quite a bit…

You see, when Sarah goes to try and quiet the baby, she ends up relating in as dark and creepy a fashion as she can a little piece of 'The Labyrinth' story line… The only problem though is that just after she does so, and find out that it is a little more difficult to get her little brother to sleep, she ends up accidentally relating a portion of the story in her disgust for the child, which ultimately brings forth the real Goblin King (Bowie) that until now had only be relegated to the story!

When the Goblin King gets there, he take charge of the scared little boy, and during a moment of realization as to what is going on, Sarah changes her tune and decides to try everything she can to get her little brother back! Of course during this time The Goblin King is trying everything he can to persuade her not to try and go after him, (including showing her the world/labyrinth that she would have to traverse to find him!)

Now with only 13 hours to find her little brother… Sarah (along with friends that she will meet along the way, will have to traverse the Labyrinthian maze, so that she can rescue her baby brother!

Sarah with her baby brother Toby

Now what I like about this movie, and what I found made this a truly awesome B movie is:

1. The whole movie kept me enthralled and fascinated to the point that I was rooting all the way through that Sarah and her crew would be able to rescue her little brother.

2. Also as mentioned above, Fantasy movies tend to leave one with a really good feeling, and this movie really was no different!

3. David Bowie: Up to now, I have never seen anything that David Bowie had ever done, and I had heard not much of his music, but the music that I did hear, I love! With that said, I gotta say that David Bowie has really proven himself to have solid talent as an actor in this film! and the songs he sings in the movie really are top drawer!

4. I love Jennifer Connelly's acting talent, as a matter of fact, I have been following her career for years, and I gotta say that it was a real treat to watch her in one of her earliest movies!

5. I also wanted to say that I loved the design for the world of the Labyrinth! As a matter of fact there are actually a few things that I thought that I would share with you about this. A: I loved the realism attached to the puppeteering/animatronics (And believe you me, considering the number of creatures versus really only 3 actual actors (Bowie, Connelly, and Froud) there needed to be quite a few puppeteers and animatronics people!

The creatures that are surrounding Jennifer Connelly are just a small example of the creatures from Labyrinth.

I also thought that I would mention a few interesting facts that I discovered while researching this move:

1. I found out that over time Hoggle's costume had been thought to be lost to the ages, but it turns out that it was lost on a flight one day and ended up being sold as a lost luggage piece and now is on display in a museum in Scottsboro Alabama!

2. Also don't be surprised to see a surprise cameo by Warwick Davis (Willow) who played one of the Goblin Soldiers!

3. Also I am fairly certain that the name of the school in the Harry Potter series 'Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry' was influenced by the name that Sarah mistakenly calls Hoggles when she first meets the little guy… She mistakes his name and calls him 'Hogwart.'

4. Also the last thing that I thought that I would mention is the fact that I discovered that the movie had been extended in to a four volume, published, comic book mini-series called 'Return To The Labyrinth.'

Anyway folks, if your looking for a fun Fantasy flick that would be great for just about any and everybody in the family over the age of 5, then I highly recommend watching Labyrinth! It is a great one!